Hokage Character Simulator

"Tsk~" Yamanaka Ino confidently raised her slightly puffed chest: "Just you? If you lose, you'll have to agree to my conditions."

"Who's afraid of who?"

"Hmph, arrogant billboard brow!"

"Ino pig!"

Aside from these two, most other students remained indifferent to the written exam.

After all, in the world of ninjas, strength is everything.

What everyone truly cares about are the results and rankings of actual combat.

Umino Iruka walked up to Naruto as he gave his lecture. He leaned down and whispered:

"Naruto, this written exam is very important and will affect your final grade. You have to take it seriously."

"I understand, Iruka-sensei," Naruto nodded obediently.

Seeing this, Iruka couldn't help but smile and pat Naruto's head.

Naruto: "…"

At that moment, a prompt from the system sounded in Naruto's mind:

[Ding~ Task released: Achieve first place in the written test. Reward: 1 simulation opportunity.]

A task?

Naruto narrowed his eyes and glanced at the textbook on his desk.

The content in the textbooks wasn't difficult for Naruto.

After all, in his past life, he was an average college student before traveling to this world.

Although Naruto wasn't particularly studious before, the material taught in the Ninja Academy—reading, ninja history, basic mathematics—was elementary to him.

Naruto also had years to familiarize himself with the written language of this world after being reborn.

Soon, the written exam began.

Naruto completed it without breaking a sweat.

When the exam was over, Iruka announced that the students should study independently during the last class period while he graded their tests.

On the podium, Iruka wore a slightly surprised expression as he reviewed the results.

"Even I'm a bit surprised. The top score in today's written exam is… Uzumaki Naruto."

[Ding~ Task complete. Simulation opportunity +1.]

[Ding~ New task released: Achieve first place in the upcoming combat exercise. Reward: 1 simulation opportunity.]

Hearing the system prompts, Naruto in his seat wasn't surprised at all.

Using university knowledge to solve elementary school questions?

If he couldn't get first place under these circumstances, he might as well have been studying with dogs.

On the other hand, Ino's bright blue eyes widened in disbelief as she turned back to look at Naruto.

"Him? Uzumaki Naruto?"

Haruno Sakura, sitting next to her, frowned as her gaze drifted upward in confusion.

Her expression seemed to say: "Huh?" (￣△￣)

In the back of her mind, Sakura was frantically trying to remember who Uzumaki Naruto was.

As mentioned earlier, Naruto was something of a "nobody" in the class.

Other than Hinata occasionally paying attention to him, Naruto's existence was practically invisible.

The only person in the Ninja Academy who interacted with Naruto regularly was Iruka.

At this moment, Haruno Sakura struggled to recall anything about him.

Ino snapped her fingers twice in front of Sakura's face.

Sakura blinked, wiping the corner of her mouth and asking, "Ino, what are you doing?"

"I thought you were zoning out again," Ino teased.

Surprisingly, Sakura didn't object. Instead, she nodded and said:

"I was zoning out… But Ino, do you even know who Uzumaki Naruto is?"

"Ino: ?"

After school ended, Naruto couldn't wait to go home and begin another simulation.

With four characters available to draw from this time, Naruto was confident that even with bad luck, the character he created would definitely be strong.

As Naruto packed his bag and left the academy, he was stopped after taking just a few steps.

Haruno Sakura, with her pink hair tied up in a ribbon, leaned casually against her friend Yamanaka Ino, hands in her pockets.

Ino crossed her arms and turned to Naruto with a sharp, scrutinizing gaze.

Naruto stopped a short distance away and said nothing.

Sakura couldn't hold back any longer. She whispered to Ino:

"Ino, why isn't he saying anything? Are we supposed to keep acting cool?"

Ino kicked Sakura lightly with her heel and whispered back:

"Be patient. He needs to know we mean business if we want him to tell the truth!"

"But pretending to be intimidating is exhausting, Ino," Sakura whined, her voice tinged with frustration.

Ino sighed, "Maybe we're not being intimidating enough?"

Before Sakura could respond, Naruto finally sighed and asked the two girls:

"Are you two tired?"

Sakura froze for a moment before responding with a pout:

"I am tired! If I had known this was how it would go, I wouldn't have made that bet with Ino!"

Sakura relaxed her posture, rolling her shoulders and stretching.

Only they knew the details of their bet.

Sakura had lost to Ino by one point on the exam, and Ino, who was just one point short of a perfect score, had lost to Naruto.

Ino was now deeply curious.

How had Naruto, someone she barely remembered as an average student, suddenly aced the test with a perfect score?

But rumors about Naruto being the "demon fox brat" made her nervous about approaching him alone.

So Ino had dragged Sakura along to give herself courage.

In an attempt to appear confident, the two of them had struck what they thought were fierce and intimidating poses.

But from Naruto's perspective, they just looked… awkward.

He had seen them waiting for him from a distance, shifting positions to block his path every time he tried to walk around them.

Ino coughed awkwardly and asked, "Never mind if we're tired. Just tell us: Did you cheat?"

While speaking, Ino circled around Naruto with Sakura.

Given Naruto's small stature at this age, the scene looked almost like two older girls cornering a little boy on the playground.

Naruto's lips twitched as he glanced at the two of them—one with bright pink hair, the other with blonde.

They were clearly trying to act brave, but their tense expressions betrayed their fear of the "monster" rumors surrounding Naruto.

Naruto said calmly, "I didn't cheat."

Hearing this, Sakura finally spoke up:

"See, Ino? He said he didn't cheat. Stop doubting him! Maybe he just didn't care about being first before now."

Ino, still unconvinced, crossed her arms and snapped:

"I won't lose to you next time! If you're so great, then keep getting perfect scores!"

Naruto smirked, amused by their childish competitiveness.

He stared directly at Ino, who suddenly became flustered under his gaze.

"W-what are you staring at?" Ino stammered, looking away.

Sakura chuckled and teased, "Ino, I think Uzumaki-san might have a crush on you."

Blushing furiously, Ino slapped Sakura's arm.

"Shut up, billboard brow!"